Madonna’s cone bra, J-Lo’s low-low-low-cut Grammy dress, Stevie Nicks’ scarves—hell, anything Cher’s sported in the past 45 years. What a diva wears can make a bigger statement that what comes out of her mouth (or out of the backing track, in some cases).

The “meat dress,” created by artist/designer Franc Fernandez and stylist Nicola Formichetti for Mama Monster to wear at the 2010 Video Music Awards, was handed over to preservation expert Sergio Vigilato, a former rock singer from Brazil who has made a name for himself handling unusual taxidermy requests. But even Viglato wasn’t prepared for what he found: The dress, made from about 35lb of Argentinian flank steak, had started decomposing and had something of a foul aroma. (Does anyone have PETA on speed-dial?) As the article explains:

“Vigilato declined to reveal the process he used to cure the meat dress, although museum officials said it was treated with bleach, formaldehyde and detergent to remove bacteria.

Once the meat was preserved, Vigilato said, he had to recondition it to make it semi-pliable so it could be reassembled. He glued the meat slabs to a mannequin outfitted with a pattern cut to resemble Fernandez’s original dress and then dyed it a dark red to resemble its color when Lady Gaga wore it.”

We’re just glad Ke$ha’s outfits are too threadbare for anyone to save for posterity.